‘What should we do?’ Seeking clarity in Tehran as Israeli jets fly overhead

Thousands of people are fleeing Tehran as Israel continues with its air strikes

Fear and stress are evident in my sister’s voice in Tehran, despite the crackling, intermittent WhatsApp connection that – miraculously – still works from time to time.

Clarity is what she wants from me, knowing I am a journalist with the BBC in London.

“What is going to happen? What should we do?” she asks. US President Donald Trump has said people in Tehran should evacuate. “Is he serious?”

Since Thursday night, Tehran has come under repeated bombardment by Israeli planes, which seem to be flying freely across the skies of the capital. They are met by anti-aircraft fire – which is mostly ineffective.

From her window on the upper floors of a high-rise building, my sister can clearly see the action, which does little to calm her nerves.

The Israeli military has ordered people in her district – stretching for several kilometres in all directions – to evacuate. But she has chosen to stay.

She told me that, as far as she knew, there were no military-type targets near her apartment block.

Still, she was concerned about a nearby commercial unit which might be a target. She had no idea what the company actually did.

Many people do not know who their neighbours are or whether military targets are nearby, since much of the Revolutionary Guards’ activity is conducted secretly and from hidden locations.

Eleven killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid in Gaza, rescuers say

4 hours ago Share Save David Gritten BBC News Share Save

Reuters In Gaza City, funerals were held for seven people killed while seeking aid on Tuesday

Eleven Palestinians seeking aid were among at least 33 killed by Israeli gunfire and strikes across Gaza on Wednesday, rescuers and medics say. A spokesman for the Hamas-run civil defence agency said Israeli forces “opened fire and launched several shells” at thousands of people who were queuing for desperately needed food supplies on the main Salah al-Din Road. The Israeli military said troops operating in the Nuseirat area fired warning shots overnight after a group approached them in a manner that posed a potential threat, but that it was unaware of any injuries. Another 19 people were killed in three Israeli air strikes in northern and southern Gaza, according to the civil defence agency.

They included eight who died when a home was hit in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, it said. Regarding the air strikes, the Israeli military said it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” in the territory.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Wednesday afternoon that at least 140 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours. The ministry reported on Tuesday that 51 people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern city of Khan Younis, while the UN cited partner organisations working on health as putting the death toll at more than 60. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that Israeli tanks and drones opened fire as crowds gathered near a charity community centre and a warehouse belonging to the UN’s World Food Programme. The Israeli military acknowledged that its troops were in the area and said the details of the incident were under review. In a separate incident on Tuesday, the civil defence agency said another seven people seeking aid were killed and many others were injured on Rashid Street north-west of Gaza City. A doctor at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City told Reuters news agency that the fatalities were the result of Israeli air strikes and that the injuries were caused by gunfire. Umm Fida Masoud said her son “went to bring a bag of flour and came back [injured] in a bag”. Meanwhile, a local journalist posted footage that he said showed his cousin celebrating after collecting a bag of flour for his family. “A 50kg bag. I pulled it out from under the truck, inches from death,” he declares.

AFP The World Food Programme said large crowds were gathering along well-known transport routes, hoping to intercept aid shipments

Almost 400 people have been killed while trying to get aid since 26 May, when the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) opened the first of its three distribution centre, according to the health ministry. The GHF, which uses US private security contractors, aims to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid to the 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza. The UN and other aid groups refuse to co-operate with the new system, saying it contravenes the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence. They also warn that Gaza’s population faces catastrophic levels of hunger after an 11-week total Israeli blockade that was partially eased a month ago. The US and Israel say GHF’s system will prevent aid being stolen by Hamas, which the group denies doing.

‘They sang about my family’s death’: Father’s anger exposes divide in Israeli society

6 hours ago Share Save Tom Bennett BBC News Reporting from Tamra, northern Israel Share Save

BBC Kasem Abu al-Hija lost his daughter, two granddaughters and their aunt, in Saturday’s missile strike

“I am so angry,” says Kasem Abu al-Hija, 67. On Saturday, four of his family members were killed when an Iranian missile struck their home in northern Israel, collapsing the concrete building on top of them. Books, clothes, children’s toys and body parts were blown into the road, witnesses say. The whole street was plunged into darkness when the missile hit. Rescuers managed to locate their bodies by following trails of blood. The four victims were named as Kasem’s daughter Manar Khatib, 45, his two granddaughters, Shada, 20 and Hala, 13, and their aunt, Manal Khatib, 41. They had managed to make it to the two reinforced safe rooms in the house that they shared – but the ballistic missile hit it directly. They lived in Tamra, an Arab-majority town in northern Israel. Minutes after their deaths, a video emerged online. It showed the Iranian missiles streaking through the sky overhead. As they descend on Tamra, a voice can be heard shouting, in Hebrew: “On the village, on the village.” “May your village burn,” a group of others then say, singing, whooping and clapping.

Four were killed when the missile hit this home in Tamra

“They sang about what happened to my family,” says Kasem, softly, surrounded by relatives at a vigil. The video – which shows Israelis singing a common anti-Arab chant often sung by ultranationalist Jews – has been widely condemned in Israel, with President Isaac Herzog calling it “appalling and disgraceful”. But there are more reasons that Kasem and the wider community in Tamra are angry about what happened. Here – as is the case with many Arab-majority communities in Israel – there are no public bomb shelters for its 38,000 residents. For comparison, the nearby Jewish-majority town Karmiel, population 55,000, has 126 public shelters. Residents of Tamra have long raised the alarm over the disparity. Situated in Israel’s north, about 10km (6 miles) east of the city of Haifa and 25km (16 miles) south of the border with Lebanon, the town has been vulnerable to rockets fired by the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah. In October 2024, a rocket fired by the group seriously injured one woman. Across Israel, about a quarter of the population have no access to a proper shelter. But in non-Jewish local authorities the figure is almost half, according to a 2018 report by Israel’s State Comptroller, the most recent data available. “For many decades, Arab local authorities have received lower state funding across various areas, including emergency preparedness,” says Lital Piller of the Israel Democracy Institute, a think tank. Where shelters do exist, she says, “they are few, poorly maintained, and often not suited for prolonged stays”. The BBC has approached Israel’s Ministry of Defense for comment. Israeli Arabs – many of whom prefer to be called Palestinian citizens of Israel – make up a fifth of the country’s population. By law, they have equal rights with Jewish citizens, but they routinely complain of state discrimination and being treated as second-class citizens. Following the Gulf War of 1990-91, when Iraqi missiles hit Tel Aviv and Haifa, the Israeli government mandated that all new residential buildings must contain a reinforced safe room, or Mamad, as they are known.

Most residents of Tamra do not have a safe room and must share with their neighbours

But Arab communities often face tough planning restrictions, which leads to unregulated construction and homes being built without them, activists say. About 40% of Tamra’s homes have their own safe room, local authorities say, leaving the majority of residents having to run to neighbours’ homes to share. In many cases, due to the short warning period, this is not possible. “The gaps are enormous,” says Ilan Amit, of the Arab-Jewish Center for Empowerment, Equality, and Cooperation (Ajeec), which works to build shelters in Arab communities. “I live in Jerusalem. Every building has a bomb shelter. Every neighbourhood has a public bomb shelter.” As dark falls in Tamra, residents’ phones light up simultaneously with a screeching alert: “You must stay near a protected area.” Sirens soon follow, and residents – fresh from the trauma of Saturday’s strike – panic. Mothers gather their children and people run up the street shouting. Several families cram into the safe room of one house. Some cry, some smile, others twitch nervously. One man closes his eyes and prays. Boom after boom is heard overhead. The shelter issue is even more pronounced in Israel’s Arab bedouin communities – many of which live in villages in the Negev Desert that are not recognised by the Israeli government, so do not have shelters built for them. The only victim of the April 2024 escalation in hostilities between Israel and Iran was a young girl from one such community who was seriously injured and spent a year in hospital after fragments from an Iranian missile struck her head. Lack of shelters is also a prevalent issue in some of Israel’s poorer Jewish communities in areas like the south of Tel Aviv.

Adel Khatib says Tamra does not receive as much funding as Jewish communities

A new survey conducted by Hebrew University found that 82.7% of Jewish Israelis support the attack on Iran – but 67.9% of Arab Israelis oppose it. Further to that, 69.2% of Arab Israelis reported feelings of fear over the strikes – with 25.1% expressing despair. “Arab society feels neglected and left behind,” says Amit. “There are huge gaps in education and employment. There are huge gaps in shelters, in the existence of shelters.” Adel Khatib, a municipal official from Tamra, says: “In the days since this happened, you can feel the anger.” “We don’t get the basic needs,” says Khatib. “Most of the Arab communities, they don’t have community centres or buildings for culture, activities.” According to official Israeli statistics, in 2023, 42.4% of the Arab population lived below the poverty line – more than double the proportion in Israel’s general population. There have been attempts in recent years to close these gaps. In 2021, Israel’s previous government brought in a five-year development plan for Arab society. “We were in the middle of a huge leap in social economic development, narrowing gaps in education, higher education, and employment,” says Amit. But Israel’s current right-wing governing coalition, the most hardline in its history, has slowly reduced funding for that plan – redirecting the money elsewhere. Some of these cuts came as the government adjusted budgets to fight the ongoing war in Gaza, which began in response to the Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Your questions answered on the Israel-Iran conflict

3 hours ago Share Save Share Save

Getty Smoke rises from an Israeli attack on Shahran oil depot in Tehran on June 15

Iran and Israel continued to attack each other on Wednesday night, as US President Donald Trump said “I may do it, I may not do it” when asked whether the US would join the conflict. BBC experts and correspondents answer your questions about what is happening – and what could happen if the conflict escalates.

Why is Israel bombing Iran now?

Israel’s position on this is that it has no choice, that it believes in the last few months Iran was accelerating towards building a nuclear weapon, and that talks aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear programme were going nowhere, and that therefore this was the last resort. They have said they see an existential threat from Iran, and have argued that if Iran acquired a nuclear weapon it would use it because it has previously vowed to destroy the state of Israel. That Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon is not necessarily a view shared by the rest of the region, and it is not necessarily shared by the International Atomic Energy Agency, nor is it shared by the last open source report we have seen from US intelligence which did not say that Iran was about to produce a nuclear weapon. – Frank Gardner, security correspondent

Where can civilians in Iran go?

The Israel Defense Forces has issued some evacuation notices for certain parts of the capital Tehran, but these areas are extremely dense and highly populated. We’ve seen footage of huge traffic jams as enormous lines of cars try to escape Tehran towards the northern part of the country, which they consider safe. But there have been strikes on those areas as well. Because the targets have been so widespread by Israel, no area can be considered safe. In Tehran, the government announced they were opening the metro stations 24 hours a day so people can take shelter. Tehran has 10 million people, so you can imagine evacuating that number of people is not really possible. – Nafiseh Kohnavard, Middle East correspondent

Reuters Ten million people live in Tehran

If US enters the conflict, would Iran strike US targets?

There is certainly risk, and the consequences for the US are fairly significant. There are about 40,000 to 50,000 US troops at around 19 locations across the Middle East. There are US personnel based in Cyprus, and a US naval facility in Bahrain. It will all depend on how the US decides to get involved, and to what extent. – Mikey Kay, Security Brief host

Could Iran’s proxies support it in conflict with Israel?

I don’t think so – not any longer. Since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, 2023, Israel has systematically taken down a lot of the first line of defence that Iran had. They have depleted Hamas in Gaza, they have largely depleted Hezbollah’s arsenal in Lebanon, and Syria is no longer an ally of Iran because Bashar al-Assad has been deposed, albeit not by Israel. The Houthis meanwhile are relatively constrained in Yemen. So they are not very well coordinated. – Frank Gardner, security correspondent

EPA An Israeli strike on Hezbollah in Lebanon earlier this month

Who is Iran’s leader and how much support does he have?

Iran’s supreme leader is Ali Khamenei. He is a religious figure, but he has much more power than Iran’s president. He is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and is a decision-maker for the country, including negotiations with the US. But he does not command the support of all of Iran – his people are divided, and that division is deepening. Iran witnessed huge protests against the regime only two years ago. Women participated in those protests, demanding their rights and freedoms. But we cannot ignore that this regime still has its supporters – including in the armed forces which are connected to the regime. – Nafiseh Kohnavard, Middle East correspondent

Reuters Ali Khamenei

What happens if the regime is overthrown in Iran?

There’s no clear answer. We’ve seen over the last few years that there is no united opposition who could work together to replace the government. Right now there are different options, including Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the former Shah of Iran, who is now living abroad. He has supporters inside and outside Iran, but how many we can’t really say. He has opponents as well, including reformists inside. They may not want to go back to Iran’s monarchy that was overthrown nearly 40 years ago. So it’s not clear if there is one replacement. – Nafiseh Kohnavard, Middle East correspondent

Where is Fordo and what is it?

Fordo is about 200km (124 miles) south of Tehran and is one of two critical enrichment facilities Iran has. It has been built into a mountain for its protection. And it is basically one of the key enrichment facilities that Iran has been using to boost its enriched uranium stockpile. Fordo has been struck by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) already. However, it is believed the attacks were going after Iran’s surface-to-air missiles and air defence capabilities around it, in order to make it more vulnerable. – Mikey Kay, Security Brief host

Maxar Fordo is buried deep beneath a mountain

How close is Iran to getting a nuclear bomb?

The only people who know for certain whether or not Iran was working towards building a nuclear bomb are Iran’s most trusted nuclear scientists, the inner core of security officials and the supreme leader himself. The rest is conjecture. But the alarm was raised earlier this month when the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, found Iran to be in breach of its non-proliferation obligations, for the first time in nearly 20 years. Iran has amassed around 400kg of uranium enriched to 60%, well beyond the level needed for civil nuclear purposes. The UN agency said Iran had failed to cooperate fully and that it was unable to verify there had been no diversion of nuclear material to nuclear weapons. That is not the same though, as stating Iran was racing towards building a bomb. The Israeli military said last week that “over the past few months intelligence has shown that Iran is closer than ever to obtaining a nuclear weapon”. But whose intelligence? Not apparently, its closest ally’s. In March, the US director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, told Congress that “while Iran had an unprecedented stockpile of weapons-grade uranium, it did not appear to be building a nuclear weapon”. Iran, meanwhile, has always maintained that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful. – Frank Gardner, security correspondent

Does Israel have nuclear weapons?

Trump weighs joining Iran strikes after calling for ‘unconditional surrender’

12 hours ago Share Save James FitzGerald BBC News Share Save

Reuters

US President Donald Trump is considering whether to join Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, as the conflict continues for a sixth day and angry rhetoric ramps up between all sides. American strikes could involve using superior weaponry to hit an underground nuclear site at Fordo, according to five sources who spoke to the BBC’s US partner CBS News. The president met with his national security team on Tuesday to discuss next steps. Israel and Iran have exchanged deadly strikes since Friday. Analysts say Trump’s comments suggests a willingness to join the Israelis, despite his earlier call for de-escalation and his vocal support for a diplomatic solution to limit Iran’s nuclear research.

He has shown increasing frustration over a perceived lack of progress to secure a new deal that would be aimed at preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Trump pulled out of a previous accord with Iran during his first term. In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump threatened Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and said the US knew where he was. “He is an easy target, but is safe there,” Trump wrote. “We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin.” Another post from Trump simply read: “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” On Wednesday, Iran’s supreme leader responded to the comments directly and said the country would never surrender. “Any form of US military intervention will undoubtedly be met with irreparable harm,” Khamenei said. “Wise people who know Iran, its people, and its history never speak to this nation in the language of threats, because Iranians are not those who surrender,” he added.

The US has insisted that Iran must scrap its uranium enrichment to prevent the country developing nuclear weapons – although Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful. Trump pulled out of a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and five other world powers in 2018. After returning to office, he dispatched negotiators to try to reach a new agreement with the Middle Eastern nation, without a breakthrough. Trump appears to have cooled on traditional diplomacy in recent days. On Tuesday, while travelling back to the US from a G7 summit in Canada, he said he was “not too much in the mood to negotiate with Iran”. Trump’s frustrated language implied that he was crossing a threshold that would be “very difficult to row back from”, Professor Amnon Aran, an Israeli foreign policy expert, told BBC Radio 5 Live. “We’re definitely the closest we have been” to a US entry in the conflict since it began, he added. Other pundits suggested Trump could be forced into action. A former Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, speculated that the president would feel he had little choice but to intervene if Iran attacked a US ship or base. However, such an attack might also be an Iranian tactic to prompt Trump to pressurise Israel into negotiating an end to the fighting, Mr Oren told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Trump himself told reporters on his return from the G7 that his goal was “an end, a real end, not a ceasefire”. His comments came just hours after he joined other leaders in the Western alliance in issuing a statement that called for de-escalation in the Middle East. Trump left the summit early to respond to the crisis from Washington, before a series of statements left observers unclear which way he might choose to go. A message urging Iranians to evacuate Tehran similarly caused a flurry of speculation, as well as anxiety in the Iranian capital itself.

What do we know about the Fordo nuclear site?

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier announced the “deployment of additional capabilities” to the Middle East to enhance the Pentagon’s “defensive posture”, despite US officials’ denial at the time that they were joining the military action. At least 30 US military planes have been moved from bases in America to Europe over the past three days, flight tracking data reviewed by BBC Verify has shown. It was unclear whether the US movements were directly connected to the Israel-Iran conflict, but one expert said the tanker aircraft flights were “highly unusual”. Another expert said that the movements could be part of a broader policy of “strategic ambiguity” aimed at influencing Iran to make concessions. Signing up to Israeli military action does not have full agreement from Trump’s closest advisers, CBS reported. But the dissenting voices have not gone public. There are also a wide range of views within Trump’s supporter base. The Republican ran for re-election on the basis that he would disentangle America from conflicts overseas, and he has previously criticised US intervention in the Middle East.